The decline in bargaining power for large groups of workers is at the core of rising inequality. This research aims to provide some of the first causal evidence that contractual language is not merely cheap talk but rather meaningfully shapes the decisions of contracting parties in the labor market. The grant will support an effort to digitize union contracts stored at the Kheel Center at Cornell University. In addition to digitization, the researchers will use language processing tools to extract norms, commitments, and entitlements from the text.

Research projects can be proposed for the following research areas:
Growth and Labor Market Outcomes
Active Labor Market Policies, Labor Market Institutions and Labor Market Frictions
Human Capital and Labor Productivity
Migration and Labor Markets
Labor Market Dimensions of Population Dynamics, Urbanization, and the Environment

There are three cross-cutting themes that researchers are encouraged to address under any of the above research areas:
Gender
Fragile States and Region
Improving Data for Labor Market Research

Areas of interest include the measurement and classification of non-standard work; trends in non-standard employment; causes of the increase in alternative work arrangements; effects of non-standard employment on workers; and the changing social contract.

IZA is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world’s largest network of economists, whose research provides answers to the global labor market challenges of our time.

Deadline:

The Upjohn Institute requests proposals for Early Career Research Awards (formerly called Mini-Grants). These grants are intended to provide resources to junior faculty (untenured and within six years of having earned a PhD) to carry out policy-related research on labor market issues. The Institute encourages research proposals on all issues related to labor markets and public workforce policy.

Deadline:

Canada and the United States are two of the largest immigrant destinations in the world. For decades, the two countries have received large inflows of immigrants from many common sending nations while pursuing markedly different policies regarding the admission and integration of immigrants. This project examines education and earnings trajectories of immigrants and their descendants in both countries, in light of these notable regulatory differences marking labor market and social policies.

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth is a non-partisan organization that seeks to deepen the understanding of whether and how inequality affects economic growth and stability. Their academic grants program aims to build a portfolio of cutting-edge scholarly research that investigates the various channels through which economic inequality may (or may not) impact economic growth and stability, including both direct and indirect pathways.

This Russell Sage Foundation initiative will support innovative social science research on the social, economic and political effects of the Affordable Care Act. We are especially interested in funding analyses that address important questions about the effects of the reform on outcomes such as financial security and family economic well-being, labor supply and demand, participation in other public programs, family and children’s outcomes, and differential effects by age, race, ethnicity, nativity, or disability status.